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What on earth is going on? First, Delta drops a bomb on their SkyMiles loyalty program by telling customers they don’t care how much you fly Delta, but rather how much money you spend on Delta via flying, hotels, car rentals, and their gift horse: their credit card agreement with American Express. Ok, it doesn’t taste very good, but it is what it is.
- The new program de facto eliminates some of the most valued perks of those Amex credit cards like MQM boosts and MQD waivers because they no longer exist in the program. That is a big enough of a devaluation that some may cancel cards and pivot to better cards like the Capital One Venture X. But then they went even further and will limit lounge access on the most expensive Delta card to just 10x per year ( unless you spend $75k ).
I’ve had a ton of angry emails, comments, DMs saying they don’t know why they’d keep a Delta card, unless they came up with better perks.
So of course, they sweetened those cards right in order to retain existing customers or attract new ones?
NO!
This is just hilarious. They’ve made it harder to get a personal Delta card with new exclusionary “family rules. ”
Table of Contents
As an FYI…this is what you’d need for Delta Status in 2025
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
- 1 MQD per $20 spent
- This means Silver status would require a whopping $120k spent on the card
- 1 MQD per $20 spent
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
- 1 MQD per $10 spent
- Lounge access limited to 10x per year starting 2/1/25 unless you spend $75k in a calendar year
- Silver status would be $60k a year on the card.
- 1 MQD per $10 spent
| Silver Medallion | 6,000 MQD |
| Gold Medallion | 12,000 MQD |
| Platinum Medallion | 18,000 MQD |
| Diamond Medallion | 35,000MQD |
The new family rules for Delta Personal Cards issued by Amex
- Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
The Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card
- You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Options Credit Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or previous versions of these Cards.
Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card
- You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or previous versions of these Cards
Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
- You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card or previous versions of these Cards.
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
- You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card or previous versions of this Card.
What does all this mean? Basically, if you’ve had any of the premium Delta cards, you’re ineligible for a bonus going forward on a card that is lower down the totem pole, or has a cheaper annual fee. Wild.
Have you had a Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, canceled it, and you’d like to have a Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, you can get it, just without a welcome offer. However, if you had the inverse, you would be eligible. You can climb the totem pole of welcome offers, just not slide down it.
Delta American Express Credit Card Chart of eligibility
- Vertical: Card you Have/Have had
- Horizontal: Card you want
| Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card | Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card | Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card | Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card | |
| Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card | no | no | yes | yes |
| Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card | no | no | no | yes |
| Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card | no | no | no | no |
Overall
I’m not a Delta loyalist by any means, and their SkyMiles have been watered down so much that I hardly even value them at a penny a piece ( the worst valuation of any airline I can think of ) and these moves certainly aren’t making me entertain getting one of their cobranded card from American Express or strategizing elite status.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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